Owen Hanson, who made millions smuggling drugs to Australia, will spend 20 years in jail

Staff writers, AAP, News Corp Australia Network

January 11, 2017 2:05pm

OWEN Hanson’s playboy life as a California-based kingpin trafficking large shipments of cocaine and other drugs to Australia is over.

Instead of partying shirtless poolside at Las Vegas casinos with bikini-clad babes, Hanson agreed to spend the next 20 years locked up in the US federal prison system.

Hanson, 34, admitted in a San Diego court he was the founder and boss of ODOG, a money-laundering criminal enterprise that trafficked drugs and ran an illegal gambling business using violence to recoup bad debts.

“The defendant oversaw a drug distribution network of more than five individuals that imported, exported and distributed throughout the United States, Australia and elsewhere hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, MDMA (ecstasy), metabolic steroids and human growth hormones, also known as HGH,” Assistant US Attorney Andrew Young told US District Court judge Mitchell Dembin.

media_cameraPolice said Owen ‘O-Dog’ Hanson was the head of a large drug distribution network. Picture: AAP

Hanson also admitted to routinely providing “performance-enhancing drugs to numerous professional athletes”.

The former University of Southern California gridiron player had protested his innocence since Australian and US authorities arrested him at a golf course near San Diego in 2015.

But as his trial approached and facing life in prison, he agreed in a plea deal to the 20-year sentence.